A grant has been awarded to Dr. Andrew Brower and Mr. Andrew Warren at Oregon State University to investigate the evolutionary relationships among the subfamilies and tribes of the skipper butterflies of the world (family Hesperiidae). As his dissertation research, Warren will combine DNA sequences from several different genes with morphological character data from examination of pinned adult specimens, to elucidate the pattern of relationships of this large and poorly-understood group of butterflies. The DNA part of the study will sample broadly among more than 100 genera, while the morphological component will examine a reduced set of about 50 exemplars representing the range of variation from the global fauna.
As the most charismatic group of invertebrates, butterflies have served as model organisms in a broad range of evolutionary and ecological studies, and enjoy a broad constituency of amateur enthusiasts who appreciate them in various ways from collecting to photography to watching. Because they have been the subject of this attention for hundreds of years, butterflies have perhaps the most comprehensive geographical and temporal records of distribution patterns of any diverse animal taxon, which makes them excellent indicators of environmental change. Surprisingly, however, our knowledge of their evolutionary relationships is quite limited. This research represents a key component of an effort that is currently underway to develop a comprehensive phylogenetic hypothesis for all butterflies - that is, to have a complete "tree of life" for butterflies that will provide a predictive basis for future studies of the evolution of wing patterns, mimicry, aposematism, host plant coevolution, and other topics of recurrent interest in the fields of ecology and evolution.
